The BYU Cougars seemed to pick up where they left off before their recent loss, with a dominant 44-13 conference win against the TCU Horned Frogs on Saturday.
Nearly every BYU fan remembers the embarrassing loss to Texas Tech, but this week’s game felt different to a lot of the fans.
“The offense is looking way better than it has in the past few weeks,” said William Thatcher, a longtime BYU fan who attended the game. “I like how Bear’s throwing the ball more. It seems like they have more trust in him overall.”
While BYU’s offense, led by true freshman Bear Bachmeier, put on a show, it’s the defense who won this game.
“I think it was diligence and discipline of the defense,” said defensive tackle Keanu Tanuvasa. “I think that’s our capacity, that’s who we are, and I think we stuck to that this week. I think that’s the key, sticking to that and being disciplined to who we are.”
One of the most spectacular plays of the night belongs to safety Tanner Wall, a team captain and former walk-on, who brought the house down with an incredible interception leading to a BYU touchdown. It was his first time getting into the end-zone since his senior year of high school in 2017.
“It was great,” Wall said. “In my head I was like, ‘Don’t get tackled, get to the end zone.’ So, we found a way in.”
BYU’ s defense held the Horned Frogs under 300 total yards of offense, forced two turnovers and only allowed one third down conversion the entire game.
And once BYU’s offense stepped onto the field, running back LJ Martin led the pack, rushing the ball 21 times — one of those for a touchdown.
Martin is fresh off an injury but is quickly approaching a 1,000-yard season — an accolade not too many running backs experience.
“It would mean a lot, bit I more just want to do it for the guys up front,” Martin said. “They’ve been working their butts off opening holes, so just to be able to get a thousand to show them as a unit as well, dominating, would mean a lot for both of us I would say.”
After what seemed to be a masterclass from BYU as a whole, Sitake said there’s still some things they need to work on if they want to compete for a spot in the Big 12 Championship.
“I thought it was a really good game plan, but not perfect enough,” Sitake said. “We’ll take the win, but there’s a lot of room for improvement still and we’ll just get to work.”
BYU moved to number 11 in the latest AP Top 25 poll after dropping four spots the week before. But the standings don’t seem to be at the forefront of Sitake’s mind.
“I don’t get involved in that,” Sitake said. “I’m just going to keep playing ball. So, I’m probably the wrong guy to ask about that stuff.”
BYU is set to face off against the Cincinnati Bearcats this coming weekend in Ohio. Kickoff is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. A watch party will be held in The Crossroads in the Manwaring Center at BYU-Idaho with activities starting at 5:30 p.m.